Graves Chapel - 1885 - Graves Mill, Virginia 

The Shiloh Baptist Association held the first services in the newly built Graves Chapel on October 14, 1886. The church is a simple wood-frame building with two separate entrance doors. At one time the doors provided a separate entrance for men and women, who were seated on opposite sides of the sanctuary.

Sunday School classrooms were added to the back of the church in 1955. By then the population of the village at Graves Mill was shrinking. Many families had been displaced during the creation of the nearby Shenandoah National Park, and many young people were leaving the mountains to seek opportunity elsewhere. After 83 years serving the community, a final communion service was held in April of 1969 and the church was closed.

 The communion glasses from this last service were still in the pew racks when, in 1979, the church reopened as a non-denominational fellowship. This evolved into an Episcopal Mission church, but by the 1990s, attendance was again in decline and in June, 1995, the final services were held.

Just a few days after the church closed in 1995,  a devastating flood washed away several buildings in Graves Mill, including the Post Office. Floating trees and debris, caught in the trees of the cemetery adjacent to the church, formed a dam that diverted the full force of the flood and spared the church building.

Today, Graves Chapel serves as a community center. Evening Prayer Services are held on the fourth Sunday of each month.

Information for this post was derived from a history of Graves Mill by Doug Graves which is available online here.
Click on pictures to enlarge. Click here to see last Sunday's church.